After many years of trying to get published on a professional level, this was going to be my swan song. And then the phone rang...Actually had a brief, mostly positive review in the New York Times Book Review. My first public reading ever was from this book, in New York City for the first time, as the warm-up act for Tom Disch. Won the Minnesota Book Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, which still puzzles me.

My second novel was going to be a comedy about a homicidal president and a female high-school wrestler, but I couldn’t quite pull it off. In a panic I dug through my Clarion stories and found this. SKD was optioned for the movies many times over the years, and finally purchased by Paramount in 2010. The Hollywood Reporter did a story on it, which is posted in the Artifacts section of the Gallery.

Mini-collection, containing “Dating Secrets of the Dead”, “Carnyvore” and “The Last Horror Show” (the last two were written exclusively for this book). Also includes "Children of the Carp," a Clarion story which eventually became the novel Serial Killer Days.

Owflight magazine #2. First story sale, got $50 for it (one cent a word?) Sort of a fluke. A gender-bending post-apocalypse story. Absolutely no humor at all in it. That came later. There was some pretty nice artwork done for the story--I posted it in the Artifacts section of the Gallery.

The story that got me into Clarion (I had unsuccessfully applied the previous year with a different story). I sold it to Pulphouse, but they pulled the plug on the magazine before the story appeared. I'm pretty sure I got paid for it. I remember Tom Disch critiquing the story at Clarion--he made a remark about a bologna sandwich that appears in the story. I think he believed the sandwich should have contained a higher grade of meat.

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I wrote it after part of a tooth broke off beneath an old filling. I’m falling apart, I thought. Even though I lost part of me, I realized I was still able to go about my normal daily business. What would happen if parts kept falling off? Included in the Best Fantasy of 2002 anthology (Haber and Silverberg). Also reprinted in Zombies: The Recent Dead, edited by Paula Guran.

A bonus feature in the Dating Secrets collection. Wrote it during the home stretch of Clarion ’89 at Michigan State University. The conclusion of the story was an event called Serial Killer Days. Don’t know why it took me so long to realize I could turn it into a novel. At one point a character gets pummeled by a plastic carp, and there was a long discussion at Clarion about whether a rubber carp would have been funnier.

Written exclusively for the Dating Secrets collection, really the only reason there was a collection. Semi-autobiographical novella about the death of show business, seen through the prism of midnight spook and magic shows. Nominated for an International Horror Guild award.

Previously unpublished story included in the Dating Secrets collection. Circus freaks on a rampage after their way of life is eliminated. Think the idea came from reading a news story about how the midway at the Minnesota State Fair had been made more "family friendly."

Salon Fantastique, Thunder's Mouth Press. Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Inspired by an episode of the Andy Griffith Show (one of the painfully awkward color ones), where a local girl who made it big in Hollywood returned to Mayberry for a visit. Got my best review ever--Elizabeth Hand (in F&SF) called it “one of the most memorable stories I’ve read in years...it alone is worth the price of admission to this collection."

Logorrhea, Bantam Books. Edited by John Klima. I remember being invited to submit to this book at a convention in Montreal. At that time it was scheduled to be a small-press title, so it was a nice surprise when Bantam picked it up. A weird love story about music and lost dreams and rotting corpses. Overlooked and underrated.

Subterranean Online. I started writing this nearly 7,000-word story on a Friday, wrapped it up on Sunday night and submitted it Subterranean, who accepted and paid for it on Monday. In truth, the idea had been in my notes for a long time, so it wasn’t quite as challenging as it might seem. I read something once in an old WPA guide about how farmers used to light bonfires along the tracks when the circus train came to town. The image stuck with me, and eventually evolved into this story.

Subterranean Online. A botched alien invasion story. Dead alien keeps interrupting teevee broadcasts in a rural area, but instead of issuing warnings to the world, he just sits there and decomposes. Bridges of Madison County meets The Outer Limits.

Subterranean Online. Goofy little story about a world where words are literally used as weapons. Think I read something about World War II, and thought it said Word War II. "Old words took on new meanings. Even sunshine and lollipops could open a wound the size of your fist in a man's chest."

Poe anthology, Solaris. Edited by Ellen Datlow. Stories inspired by Poe. Truthfully, my least-favorite published story. There was a headless chicken running around, and I should have given her the lead.

Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy 2. Great fun to write this one. A real nice workout for the imagination. I live in a small town with a paper mill, and often smell the pulp when I'm downtown. Submitted it to Subterranean Online, but fortunately Bill Schafer was putting together Dark Fantasy 2 at the time, and had a slot for the story. There’s an expanded version of this in my notes that would make a fine novel.